APSN | Suu Kyi changes line on sanctions

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Suu Kyi changes line on sanctions

The Telegraph - November 19, 2011

Suu Kyi party to register for Myanmar elections - Agence France Presse. November 18, 2011
Burma: More daylight between China and Burma - Asia Sentinel. November 18, 2011
Monks continue political protest in Mandalay - Irrawaddy. November 16, 2011
Amnesty still uncertain as prisoners transferred - Irrawaddy. November 16, 2011
Monks demand freedom in rare Myanmar protest - Agence France Presse. November 15, 2011

Damien McElroy, Rangoon – Burma's freed opposition leader has abandoned her principled demands for the isolation of the regime and believes she can now work to bring five decades of military dictatorship to an end.

In an interview in Rangoon, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said she had shifted her stance on sanctions to "neutral" and encouraged tourists to support change in her country.

A year after release from house arrest, she forcefully set out her belief that change is well in train in Burma. "We have not been passive about sanctions when we thought we should have them," she said. "This is not a time to be passive but to be slightly neutral while we wait to see."

Following a meeting in August, Ms Suu Kyi declared that Burmese President Thein Sein was sincere in wanting a departure from the past. As the former right-hand man of retired senior general Than Shwe, Mr Thein was at the heart of the repressive apparatus that sustained military rule. Now, she speaks about him as an ally.

"I don't think you can take it for granted that those in authority think in exactly the same way as those who used to be in those positions," she said. "On the whole I think he is a good listener."

Hundreds of political prisoners were freed in October and Ms Suu Kyi believes it is only a matter of time before the remaining 500 or so get out. Censorship of the media has made way for freer reporting. The dragnet of spies on every corner has been partially lifted.

The thaw has spurred Ms Suu Kyi to relax another of her hallmark positions – that foreigners boycott mass tourism packages to Burma. "There has been change, not sufficient yet but we'll get there," she said.